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Sunnyvale council approves interlocal agreement to share EMS overdose data with Dallas County
Summary
The Sunnyvale Town Council unanimously approved a resolution authorizing an interlocal agreement that will allow the town's emergency medical services to send de-identified overdose data to Dallas County Health and Human Services to support public-health surveillance required by state law.
The Sunnyvale Town Council on Monday approved a resolution authorizing an interlocal agreement (ILA) with Dallas County to share emergency medical services data for public-health surveillance.
Chief Kaia, fire chief for the Sunnyvale Fire Department, told the council the agreement implements requirements of Senate Bill 1319 and will allow the county to receive de-identified EMS data on overdoses. "It requires EMS agencies to report all overdoses, not just opioid, but any overdose to their local health authority," Chief Kaia said.
The nut of the item: Senate Bill 1319 created a mandatory reporting requirement for controlled-substance overdoses to a local health authority; Dallas County notified Sunnyvale in November that it was ready to receive data and the county asked EMS agencies to enter into ILAs to transmit data. Chief Kaia said the data transfer will be performed within Sunnyvale's existing electronic patient-care software, that town staff will do the programming, and that the transmitted data will be encrypted and de-identified.
Chief Kaia told the council the county had piloted receipt of the data with Dallas Fire and is now prepared to accept submissions from all EMS agencies in the county. He said the agreement is intended to help Dallas County detect public-health concerns, "hopefully early in their occurrence so that they can take action to prevent them from becoming more widespread." He added the reports generated will be created internally and can be adjusted if new threats emerge.
Council discussion was brief and there were no public comments on the item. Council member Elliott moved to approve the ILA; Council member Allen seconded. The motion passed 6-0 with Council member Kalki absent.
The ILA does not require Sunnyvale to purchase new software, Chief Kaia said, and he said the data will only be used as permitted by law and the agreement. The council did not attach additional conditions to the resolution.
